Knee Injuries

Discussion in 'Injuries' started by UkPlayer, May 13, 2002.

  1. UkPlayer

    UkPlayer Regular Member

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    What is it these days about the right knee and badminton players?

    Amongst others Gade, Archer, Taufik all seem to have persistent knee problems. You see knee straps on many players, Wijaya and Kim DM for example.

    Why does this sport see so many injuries to the knee in this day and age? Look at many other sports and you don't get the same sort of problems.

    Surely it's not ok for badminton to just accept this as part of the game?

    Did this used to happen 20 years ago? I can't remember.
     
  2. Khenglee

    Khenglee New Member

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    Too much jumping (impact on landing) and .... game speed (sudden stop and move around in different direction)
     
  3. klaphat

    klaphat Regular Member

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    you could add Denmark's no. 2: Kenneth Jonassen to the list of players with recent or current knee injuries.. and I am pretty sure that the badminton world has not previously seen a percentage of knee problems as high as today.. the explanation must be the higher speed in the game and the way the top athletes train.. especially the many hours they train over a number of years.. so.. changing that will be difficult as it is also the many hours of training oevr a number of years which makes them the top players.. my guess is that the coaches will have to raise the awareness of how to train without hurting the knee.. and without putting too much pressure on the knee.. if that happens.. and if the players are aware of this already from an early age.. then.. we might se fewer knee injuries in a couple of years.. we might.. but I doubt it..
     
  4. Mag

    Mag Moderator

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    Badminton vs Humans: 1-0

    All sports have "their" types of injuries. Knee injuries is, after tendonitis, the most common problem for the badminton professional.

    The game is faster today than 20 years ago (although not so much as many seem to think) so injuries should be a bit more common. On the other hand, training methods have developed and a lot of players do preventive strength training that greatly reduces the risk of injuries.

    As Thomas Kihlstrom once said: "being an elite badminton player means eduring severe pain, every day, /.../ it is just part of the normal routine."

    I recently read in a dissertation that about 40% of the Swedish elite players suffer from some degree of tendonitis... Humans just aren't built for elite sports!
     
  5. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    How to prevent knee injury?

    instead of talking about the injured, how about talk about preventing the injury? prevention is the best medicine.

    and how exactly does one prevent knee injury? can the doctors among us give us some clues?

    i find that excessive badminton, say, more than 12-14 hours/week will start to strain my knee. the feeling that the knee isn't holding up, and any twisting feels like the normally tightly bounded knee area is about to come apart.

    it aggrevates the most on weeks when i go for long bike rides, the day after the ride, i usually have problem going up and down stairs.

    whenever this happens, i will put on a knee strap/band on my knee. i wrap it just below the knee cap. and i find that it helps to keep the knee in one piece, and usually even when it is acting up, i can still play a whole afternoon of badminton with it. i have tried it without the strap, and i find that i need to keep extra attention to not over-exert force on the knee. so the knee strap definitely help.

    i learned it from looking at pros. i see a lot of them use such a strap during tourneys. and since i had pains, i tried out the same thing.

    but then, i know no idea how exactly that works. other than some extra force holding the whole knee contraption together.

    anybody care to explain?
     
  6. UkPlayer

    UkPlayer Regular Member

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    Kwun, the strap is used to compress the muscles which off court aids healing and onn court supports them. You can also get support which help keep the muscles warm and hotter which helps relieve the pain, particularly during the early stages of a game.

    Now onto prevention, but this is the point I am making. What chance do we have when a large percentage of the pros who have access to all the latest information and infrastructure regarding prevention keep getting injured?
     
  7. Chia

    Chia Regular Member

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    could it be artheritis? (spelling may be wrong)
     
  8. raymond

    raymond Regular Member

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    Re: Badminton vs Humans: 1-0

    You're quite right Mag. It'd almost seem regardless of what sports (except
    perhaps golf), if you seriously train and play (esp. if you're a pro), you're prone
    to sport specific injuries. If this's your career, physical pain and perhaps different
    kind of psycological stresses would be a commonplace in your life.
     
  9. raymond

    raymond Regular Member

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    Re: How to prevent knee injury?

    Kwun,

    I'm no medical expert. But based on the limited reading I did on
    physical/strength training, I'd say:

    + you need to integrate rest in your training. And plays would be no
    different, especially if you play seriously.
    + you may want to take a look at all the "sports" you do. If they all
    involve making same muscle groups work, or straining the same
    joint(s), you may have a problem
    + I heard you can buy a "Vitamin" supplement (?) from Costco that are
    FDA approved and are good for joints.
    + Weight lifting (with emphasis on legs) could help. But do make sure you
    put enough rest in between. Typically, after one serious work session,
    one need to ensure that muscle group(s) have at least 24-48 hours of
    rest. The jumping around in the court is like doing plyometric exercies.
    The rest period is what's quoted in one of those books.

    Hope this help.
     
  10. Slanter

    Slanter Regular Member

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    Knees are badly designed, mine in particular. I have had 'dodgy knee syndrome' for a number of years now. It seems to be similar in nature to what Kwun described. I can play badminton without any real problems for extended periods of time. My shoulder and ankle weaken but nothing serious. My real problem is endurance training as any extended excercise (cycling, running, even walking) results in severe pain on the outside of my right knee. The pain disappears after about two days even if I play badminton, as long as I do no exdurance training. The one thing I can do is use a rowing machine.

    Personally I think it is down to poor leg movement placing lateral strain on the knee joint and I have been considering going to the specialist UKPlayer mentioned a while ago. I could concentrate on the rowing machine as the sole method of endurance training but this is rather avoiding the situation. I do not want to become an invalid every time I go for a long walk or run.

    As for the prevalence of knee injuries I agree that this is just part of playing this game. I think that a detailed analysis of the lower body movements of the players who show a high propensity to knee injury might reveal slight problems with their technique, perhaps in the lunge and recovery movements. Personally I don't think intensive plyometric training does the human body many long-term favours either. Most of the top players become injured while training, not while playing, and I think that more specific muscle group training might alleviate thesecondary effects I believe are responsible for many of these problems.
     
  11. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    UkPlayer, thanks for the info. i have to disagree with your last point. pros trains much longer and plays much harder than us mortals (me, at least.. :) ) so IMHO they have a higher chance of injury than us.

    also, on a slight different topic, has anyone notice that there are more injuries among male players than females?
     
  12. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    So to summarise:

    elite players get knee injuries because of repetitive training
    us mortals get knee injuries from less than perfect technique
    poor choice of shoe can contribute

    my additional point is use of excessive muscle contraction on a tendon not used to such stress can cause an injury.
     
  13. UkPlayer

    UkPlayer Regular Member

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    A couple of people have told me taking glucosamine is good for joint protection.
     
  14. marshall

    marshall Regular Member

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    I have seen two books discuss the importance of building your hamstring muscles (in the back of yr thighs) to match the quadriceps (in front). One was a sports medicine handbook and the other "Physical Training for Badminton." Has anyone had a coach or trainer suggest building hamstrings? "PT for B" says badminton players have overdeveloped quads.

    I wonder how many coaches pay attention to this. Does anyone know?
     
  15. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    i have also read that taking gelatine is good for joints. that's what a lot of the "joint juice" drink are. they are usually marketed towards the older generation whose joints are starting to weaken. a lot of cyclist also takes such supplement due to the stressful nature of the sport.

    the supplement though, are a rip off, if you read the ingredents, it is like 99% gelatine. i usually just go and buy a pack of gello, and that works just as well. :)
     
  16. viver

    viver Regular Member

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    Some of the exercises I had to do were leg curls and squats. Leg curls help to keep our hamtrings in shape. My coach mentioned that good hamstring muscles helps to keep our knee together. This was also mentioned by my teacher, a physiologist who have under his care a top European professional football team. Having good hamstrings muscles is a good preventive exercise for knees injury.

    I also had to do squats. Since at that time, our club did not have the equipment, I had to carry a colleague on my shoulders and do the squats. And stances like the ones you see in martial arts movies: knees bent and legs at about shoulder width, if possible with your back to a wall - like sitting on a virtual chair. I had to stay in this position for about 10 mins at that time. This is a good exercise to strenghtening the knees but recommended for the grown athlete.
     
  17. raymond

    raymond Regular Member

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    I think it's generally a good idea to balance out your training. Muscles do
    work in pair. Overdeveloped one muscle could make the other muscle in a pair
    more susceptable to injury.
     
  18. ayl

    ayl Regular Member

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    G'day all,

    No expert at this topic but I will put my 2 cents in ;)

    Over here in Australia knee injury is a common thing for amateur and professional atheletes alike, especially among footballers, skater/roller blader, skiiers and netball players.

    One of the more common knee injury prevention exercise we do here is some light swimming and cycling between intense session of playing, and consuming high level of dairy products such as milk and cheese in the make up of our daily food intake.

    I play approximately 15 hours of badminton per week and follow a loose routine of having at least one day off between playing, with light cycling or swimming in the weekends to strengthen the muscles.

    Having high intake of calcium in diet seem to also boost bone density and joint strength to prevent knee buckling and other injuries.

    So far I have been blessed with no knee or joint problems and many others doing the same also have no problems, regardless of the nature of sport they play.

    I guess the frequent light exercise and good healthy diet can be a real benefit in injury prevention.
     
  19. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    15 hours per week. Now I'm really envious:(

    Not sure how the calcium can boost joint strength directly unless it's a product of the increased bone density causing greater muscle strength. But sure enough healthy diets are pretty helpful..

    I'm sure frequent light exercise is more preventative than short spurts of intense exercise.
     
  20. Chen Dan :D

    Chen Dan :D Regular Member

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    Hey you know, i had to where one of those things round my leg before, its called tubi grip. The reason that i had to wear it was that i ruptured my ligaments in my right knee. Its not a really proud thing to wear (oh sure it looks cool for people without injuries) but after a while its annoying as it restricts your movement. It's basically there to make sure that you don't go over board with your knee.

    Its easy to get injured when your tired, as your foot work becomes relaxed thats when it becomes dangerous. Basically my right knee swells up during badminton as it goes through alot of turns and twists. But i'm happy to say i don't have to wear it anymore. Injuries to your knees are the worst as it affects you psychologically, (it makes you wanna hold back as you get scared that something is gonna give in your knees).
     

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